Carlota Ciganda of Spain put a punctuation mark on the first day of the Solheim Cup by holing her second shot from the fairway for an eagle before darkness halted play with Europe holding a 4-2 lead over the United States at Golf Club St. Leon Rot in St. Leon Rot, Germany.
Ciganda’s shot pulled her and teammate Melissa Reid of England even with Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr heading to the final hole, which will be played Saturday morning because of a rain delay that halted play for more than an hour.
In the other fourball match still on the course, the German pair of Caroline Masson and Sandra Gal held a 1-up lead over Gerina Piller and Brittany Lang through 15 holes.
“There are still two days of golf left and we just have to remind ourselves of that,” said Paula Creamer of Pleasanton, who posted a 1-1 record on the opening day alongside teammate Morgan Pressel.
Kerr and Thompson held a 2-up lead with three holes remaining and were trying to close out the match when Reid holed a 30-foot birdie putt to win the 16th hole before Ciganda’s bolt out of the blue one hole later.
“Very crazy,” said U.S. Captain Juli Inkster of Los Altos Hills and San Jose State. “We got smoked the first two (fourball) matches. And we’re looking pretty good in that third match, and then Melissa makes a good putt on 16 and we miss ours. And then Carlota holes it out on 17.
“That’s the beauty of match play. It’s the beauty of golf. Good thing is we’ve got one more hole to play and then we have three more holes with that other one. We’re going to have to do a little rallying tomorrow morning early.”
In the earlier fourball matches, Anna Nordvist collected eight birdies and carried fellow Swede Caroline Hedwall to a 4 and 3 victory over Creamer and Pressel, while Charley Hull of England and Gladys Nocera of France beat Angela Stanford and Alison Lee of Valencia and UCLA, 3 and 2.
In the morning foursomes, Creamer and Pressel beat Nordqvist and Suzann Pettersen of Norway, 3 and 2, while Kerr and Thompson turned back Karine Icher of France and Azahara Munoz of Spain, 2 and 1.
The Euros registered their first two points when Hull and Reid downed Michelle Wie of Stanford and Brittany Lincicome, 2 and 1, while Gal and Catriona Matthew of Scotland got past Stacy Lewis and Lizette Salas of Azusa and USC, 3 and 2.
